Ukraine. The beer market is falling, but sales of some companies continue to grow

In the last few years, the brewing industry in Ukraine is in a difficult situation. According to Evgeny Shevchenko, the CEO of Carlsberg, on the whole, in 2015 the production of beer in Ukraine fell by 17% to 193 million liters due to the increase of the tax burden and decrease of the purchasing power of the Ukrainians.

Shevchenko noted that from 1 July 2015 after providing of amendments to the Tax Code that equating beer to alcoholic beverages, 7 000 retail outlets have been closed in Ukraine, because many sellers can't pay 8 000 UAH for license. For wholesale it costs 500 000 UAH.

He said that now the issues of enhancing the tax burden on the industry are discussing at different levels. We are talking about a possible increase in excise duties by 25% on the recommendation of the International monetary Fund (IMF), and the introduction of a tax on packaging recycling. Now the share of excise tax per liter of beer is 13%.

In 2015, the workload of the Carlsberg brewery was 59%, which is 4.5 percentage points lower than in 2014. The sales decreased slightly slower than the market. The company's market share in value terms has grown by 1.4 percentage points to 29.6% according to the AC Nielsen company’s estimation.

According to Shevchenko, the significant changes were in the dynamics of price segments over the past year. The share of economy segment has declined from 31.7% in 2014 to 30.7% in 2015, mainstream declined from 44.5% to 43.4%, premium increased from 20.9% to 21.2%, and imports increased from 1.4% to 3.2%.

“Most of our innovations last year were aimed at the premium segment,” the CEO of the company added.

Meanwhile, smaller, but active competitors are breathing at the giants’ backs. The founder and CEO of the Persha Pryvatna Brovanya Company (with market share less 5%) Andrew Matsola says to the nv.ua newspaper that despite the falling market he have nothing to complain about.

Last year, the sales volume of his company grew by 18%. “This year the market will fall by 10%, but we plan to grow by 6-10%,” Matsola said.